Vi�tytis
Howard Sandys.  Visiting  Vistytis in 2005  ...>>>
Vi�tytis is not a village. It is a little town with all its attributes like City Emblem since 1570, secondary school, kindergarten, church, post office, border guard station, library, chemist's, dispensary, branch fire station, office of insurance company, police-station, headquarters of regional park, palace of culture and cemetery. During the Soviet times the town had a hospital and a cinema theater. You will not find an Internet caf�, a cash machine or B&B so far but the inconveniences are temporary.
People in Vi�tytis territory have lived for thousands of years since conditions for agriculture-biased indoeuropeans in the area were favorable. Later on the tribes of Sudovians/Yatvingians (S�duviai/Jotvingiai) or Old Prussians had dwelled in the teritory around. Accidental archaelogical findings just in the courtyards of inhabitants of Vi�tytis do confirm the existance of Sudovians. The surrounding area was relevant from the defense/military point of view as half a dozen of mounds surround Vi�tytis in several- kilometer radius. The name of the Vi�tytis Lake has been many time mentioned in chronicles of the Teutonic Order since the 14th century. The town must have received the name from the lake (that means "chicken") and was built in the beginning of the 16th century during the colonization of southern territories in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On the other hand nobody denied a hypothesis the old Prussians or the Sudovians might have settled around fleeing from the Teutonic crusaders in the 15th century as dialect of town dwellers slightly differs from the rest dialect group in Southern Lithuania.

Historical evidence mentiones an estate erected in Vi�tytis in 1538. The church was built by the King of Lithuanian and Polish Commonwealth �ygimantas Augustas in 1566 and in 1570 the city was one of the first in present Lithuanian territory to have received the Magdeburg privilege enabling the city to deal with commerce and trade. The privilege has vivified the social and economic development of the city and area around and attracted a deal of inhabitants. After the third partition of the Commonwealth in 1795 the whole Sudovian territory fell under Prussian rule and Vi�tytis became a Prussian royal town with nearly 300 houses and 1.600 dwellers. Their number rose to 2.500 by the end of the 19th century. Relevance of the town dropped with the development of Kaunas - Kybartai railway in the middle of the 19th century. During the Czar times, interwar and now Vi�tytis has turned into a center of a small rural district whose woods and hilly area attracted a legion of hunters with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila, German Kaiser Vilhelm II and Nazi G�ring on the top.
There are 700-800 people living in Vi�tytis. Part of them deal with agriculture, the others are employed in the public sector. Some say smuggling affairs are not alien to the town like during interwar period. Vi�tytis has a good perspective as good infrastructure, beautiful hilly environment and nice architecture, asphalt roads leading to the neighboring Poland and Kaliningrad region and finally the European Union assistance will turn the region into an attractive spot for visitors and investments into the service sector not to mention tourists and fishermen. Prices for houses in the town have already reached 15-16.000 USD. And when the border crossing point to Kaliningrad region is opened. So welcome to the first and only Internet site of Vi�tytis.

by Mindaugas Jurkynas
Howard Sandys.  Visiting  Vistytis in 2005  ...>>>
Environs...>>>
History of Vistytis...>>>
A timeline of events in Vistytis...>>>
Lithuania-Russia border zone...>>>
Vistytis regional park...>>>
A visit to Vistytis in 1994...>>>
Vishtinetz (from autobiography of H. R. Rubenstein)...>>>
Local secondary school lore museum...>>>
Photo galery...>>>
Nature of Vistytis...>>>
Vistytis - borders...>>>
Environs, Camping "Viktorija"...>>>
Holiday resort "Pusele"...>>>
Yahoo Vistytis group...>>>
Maps  of  Vistytis...>>>
Jewish people from Vistytis...>>>
A farm in Vistytis...>>>
Old Vistytis...>>>
Vistytis by Bert Oppenheim...>>>
Hotel, resort, camping...>>>
Other links...>>>
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